


Work Your Spell On Me

by xiumiaou



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Drabble, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 22:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15325455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiumiaou/pseuds/xiumiaou
Summary: Cafe owner Minseok isn't too good with names. That doesn't give him the right to misspell Luhan's name every time he takes his order though.





	Work Your Spell On Me

There were times when Minseok hated his job. Don’t be mistaken, it still is his passion. The smell of roasted coffee and freshly baked bread is still enough to bring a smile to his face in the morning, no matter how early he had to wake up in order to open his shop in time for the morning rush of patrons, eager for their early dose of caffeine. However, there is an occasional customer that comes in that always has him grinding his teeth and ruing the day that he ever thought he wanted a job in customer service. 

 

The man standing in front of him right now was one of those customers.

 

He was a businessman type, coming into the store in his impeccably tailored suits, each strand of hair in perfect order and his leather shoes practically gleaming with each step he took. When the man had stepped foot in Xiurista, Minseok had definitely been in taken in by the handsome stranger in the expensive suit. His admiration ended the moment the man stepped up to the register.

 

“Good morning, Sir! May I take your order?” Minseok had greeted him cheerily in his ‘customer voice’, he wouldn’t admit it but he smiled a little bit more than he usually did. 

 

“..left them on your desk last night. I need those reports this afternoon, Baekhyun. Yes. The one with the investors. No. The presentation outline will be in the folder, It‘s marked.” The man said to apparently no one, confusing Minseok until he realized the guy was using one of those Bluetooth earpieces for a phone call and he felt lost for all of a second before he noticed two other customers falling in line with business suit guy, impatience already visible on their faces as they checked their watches. 

 

He cleared his throat, “Sir? Your order?”

 

The man looked up for all of a second before he held his hand up in a placating gesture and pointed at the picture on the menu that Minseok barely caught before returning to his spiel.

 

“Tell Junmyeon to double check those numbers, we can’t have the fiasco that happened last time happen again.” The man prattled on, a noticeable Chinese accent on some of his words if you listened close enough. He didn’t look up again, seemingly determined to avoid eye contact with the pouting cashier. 

 

Minseok tried to keep his customer face on and let out only the littlest of sighs. So the businessman was one of those types. 

 

“An Americano.” He said professionally now, ringing up the order. “What size sir?” He glanced up at the man but he hadn’t been paying attention and Minseok had to repeat himself.  

 

The man glanced up, his nose flaring, probably irritated at being interrupted just when he had begun chastising his underling for ‘giving that idiot Park permission to handle the company files, I thought you knew better than that’. 

 

“Venti.” He grunted, looking up at Minseok but not quite seeing him before returning to his long-winded rant. 

 

Minseok decided to take the good out of the situation and surmised he was just glad that he wasn’t on the receiving end of the passionately irate speech on company policy and idiot Park. It did take him a second longer to bring up the courage to ask the guy about what name he should write the cup to.

 

“Luhan. L u h a n. Remember it.” Was the condescending response he got when the call had ended. Minseok bit his tongue but wrote down the name anyway, god it was too early in the morning to deal with somebody like this. 

 

He dutifully went through the motions of making the guys order, grateful that brewing coffee was always enough to calm him down when there were difficult customers around. By the time that the steaming venti Americano had been placed on a tray and rude business guy L-U-H-A-N was whisking it away, he was engaged in yet another phone call and was striding out of the café in quick brisk steps 

 

Minseok was glad to see the back of him and hoped to the gods of coffee and cake and all that was good in the world that for once he’d made a spoilt batch of coffee and the guy wouldn’t be back for more. He’d had more than enough of flirts, jerks and pretentious ‘double-half-caf-half-decaf-soy milk cappuccino extra hot with a dash of Madagascar cinnamon and half a tablespoon of blah blah blah ‘ customers to deal with, he didn’t want to add that one to the mix.

 

Alas, it was not to be, and the man was back the next morning, the newest iPhone model pressed to his ear as he gave instructions without pause to his hapless listener. He asked for the same order as before, once again spelling out his name to Minseok slowly, as if Minseok was a particularly stupid child, before returning to his oh-so-important call.

 

Out of spite, Minseok added an extra ‘N’ to the end of the guys' name just before he gave him his coffee. The man hadn’t seemed to notice it as he had grabbed it and left in a rush, but it appeased Minseok enough that he was able to face the next customer with an effortless smile.

 

He hadn’t exactly planned for it to be a continuous thing, but the next time the guy came he was promptly labeled as ‘Loohan’ on his cup before he was sent away again as quickly as Minseok could. It only went downhill from there. He was almost running out of names now. 

 

Luhaen. Lhuhan. Liuhan. Luhang. Luhaeng. Luhhan. Lluhan. Ruhan. Roohan. Riohan. Rohan. Luham. Lewdhan. Luhand. Loohand, Uhan. Wuhan.

 

He’d tried all sorts of things and the irritated tic on Luhan’s eyebrow when he finally started noticing the deliberate misspellings was rewarding enough that sometimes it more than made up for Luhan’s aggravating presence altogether. But as all good things go, there had to be an end. 

 

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you.” Luhan spoke up one day just as Minseok finished labeling the cup ‘Lubehan’ with a brandish of his pen. The guy had just ended a call where he had protested rather vehemently that no he did not have sex with his secretary in the break room, that was crude and against company policy and he just wasn‘t his type. Minseok didn’t believe him though and that’s where he got the idea for his cup name this time. 

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Sir.” He told the taller man innocently as he filled up the cup with coffee, humming all the while. This seemed to make the already irritated Luhan even more irate. 

 

“You know I was going to let it pass because I thought you were cute and all but it’s gone on too long. I want to speak to your manager.” 

 

Minseok almost dropped the cup.

 

“You what?” He demanded, whirling around and almost spilling the coffee over himself.

 

“I said I wanted to talk to your manager,” Luhan said, frowning. “I don’t want you to lose your job but you still need to be told off !” The man continued, mistaking the reason for Minseok’s shock.

 

“No…no what did you say before that. You said, something about me being cute?” Minseok pressed on, his cheeks beginning to flush, he never expected this.

 

“Oh, I--” Luhan said dumbly as if just now realizing what he’d said and turning quite red himself but he squared up his shoulders. “That isn’t important. You’re stalling, where is the manager?” He demanded half-heartedly. 

 

“I am the manager.” Minseok grumped, setting the cup down as the coffee was threatening to spill over his fingers at how much his hands shook with nerves because of the situation “And the owner….I like to be hands on.” 

 

This information seemed to put Luhan into a dilemma and he fidgeted with his phone as he thought. Regular customer Jongdae, who always came in the mornings for his free paper and café latte, crossed his arms and began tapping his foot on the floor impatiently, a pout on his face as he’d been waiting behind Luhan for a while. 

 

“ I just want you to stop misspelling my name. Please? It’s Luhan. It’s easy. How can you keep forgetting it?” 

 

“I didn’t forget Mister L U H A N.” Minseok replied, using the same tone Luhan had used each time he’d spelled it out super slowly to Minseok whenever he came. Luhan’s face fell. 

 

“I sounded like that? Oh god. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” He gushed, fumbling with his phone again, almost dropping it as he finally understood the reason for all the misspellings of his name. Minseok was beginning to think the phone was like a security blanket for the guy.

 

“What did you mean to sound like then?” Minseok griped and flashed Jongdae an apologetic look as the man whined and Luhan continued to stand between him and his caffeine fix. 

 

“I just wanted you to remember my name. I wanted you to remember me.” Luhan explained, shedding his shyness and looking up at Minseok beseechingly. “I think you’re cute and I want you to remember me.” 

 

“You barely even looked at me!” Minseok said in denial, his cheeks undeniably red now.

 

“I was shy!” Luhan almost yelled, face almost as red as Minseok. “I walked in here and I saw the most radiant beautiful person I had ever seen in my life and I couldn’t handle looking at you for too long or I’d make a fool of myself! I couldn‘t even talk to you thinking my voice would crack!”

 

The outburst left Minseok speechless and he wrung his hands on his apron, not sure how to respond and Luhan looked just as lost. 

 

“I want my coffee!” Jongdae whined. “Can you two lovebirds get on with it already?!”

 

The two spluttered at being called lovebirds but Minseok quickly returned to his senses and finished making Luhan’s coffee as the embarrassed man kept to the side and began texting on his phone at shocking speeds. To Jongdae’s dismay, Minseok took a lot longer on Luhan’s drink than he usually would. The petite cafe store owner quickly scribbled something on the cup before he could second-guess himself and plopped the drink into Luhan’s arms before he whirled away again, putting all his attention on the very relieved Jongdae.

 

He wasn’t looking when Luhan noticed his clumsily written note on the cup.

 

( Lubehan Luhan. I get out at noon.)

 

He did, however, notice when the businessman suddenly stopped in his tracks to flash him a huge smile that was the biggest MInseok had ever seen on such a small face, ever. Minseok did his best to ignore that, his cheeks flushing pink as he turned away to fix Jongdae’s drink for him. He tried not to think about seeing that man again for the rest of his shift. it tended to lead to spilled milk and a blushing face that made whichever customer that was in front of him think he had a crush on them. (“No Jongin-sshi. I still think you’re too young for me.” “But hyung--”)

 

When Luhan came back later at noon, hair just a little more tousled than it usually was and slightly out of breath, Minseok smiled up at him sheepishly and proposed that they start over again. The situation before was ridiculous, the didn’t need to remember any of it. So Luhan held out his hand.

 

“I’m Luhan, I’m CEO of Lu corporation.”

 

Minseok took the hand and smiled, shaking it shyly. 

 

“My name is Minseok, I’m the owner of  Café Xiurista. Maybe you‘ve heard of it?” He said playfully and Luhan got a mischievous glint in his eye.

 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mingsokk.”

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't realize that I didn't post this here before, this is an old fic.


End file.
